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Free speech is a basic human right and is essential to creativity and innovation. \u00a0But every society places limits on this, particularly when it transgresses into \u201chate speech\u201d \u2013 which disparages someone or some group on the basis of race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and so on. \u00a0Calls to violence are tolerated even less. \u00a0These often lead to jail terms.<\/p>\n
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF<\/a>) has been the tech world\u2019s champion of free speech since its inception in 1990. \u00a0I have always admired this group for defending the oppressed.\u00a0 But when organizations achieve too much success, they often develop a sense of confidence and arrogance that, when unchecked, leads to their downfall. \u00a0They begin to believe they can \u201cdo no evil\u201d. \u00a0A recent statement<\/a> by the EFF makes me wonder whether it has reached this stage and needs to have its \u201cGoogle China<\/a>\u201d moment. Michael Arrington wrote in 2007<\/a> that the \u201cEFF may be getting a tad overzealous in its desire to defend our right to violate copyright and other intellectual property laws, and needs to take a step back and consider if the oppressed are now becoming the oppressor\u201d. \u00a0I\u2019m beginning to believe that Michael was right.<\/p>\n Let me explain the background of a case which the EFF has just passed judgment on so that you can decide for yourself whether this is indeed the situation.<\/p>\n The anti-immigrant groups and xenophobes<\/a> I\u2019ve written<\/a> a lot<\/a> about see the H-1B visa issue as the beachhead in their battle against skilled immigrants. \u00a0Nearly all foreign skilled professionals (such as engineers, scientists, and doctors) need this visa to work in the U.S.\u00a0 As with the tax system, Medicare, and the big bailout, the H-1B visa program has its flaws and is occasionally abused. \u00a0You don\u2019t see much visa fraud in Silicon Valley, because skills and competence are the only things that matter. \u00a0But for grunt-type IT work, cost is a bigger factor. \u00a0Most large service companies are highly ethical and go by the book. There are, however, a few shoddy body shops that bring in low-skilled workers and pay them below market wages.\u00a0 These are a small minority. \u00a0Nevertheless, they make an easy target.<\/p>\n One of the most vocal members of the anti-immigration alliance is a computer programmer who calls himself \u201cTunnel Rat\u201d (he doesn\u2019t have the courage to reveal his real name). \u00a0He maintains several websites (ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com, and Guestworkerfraud.com) that focus on\u00a0attacking Indians, Hindus, and H-1B workers, whom he calls \u201ccurry-scented slumdogs\u201d. \u00a0His websites are laced with racial slurs and profanity in English and Hindi and openly advocate hatred and violence.<\/p>\n Here are some examples from these websites.<\/p>\n Immediately after the massacre at the Fort Hood military base in Texas last November, which left 13 people dead and 29 wounded, Tunnel Rat put up a blog post<\/a> that tried to link the killings to the H-1B program. \u00a0It said: <\/p>\n \u201cAmerican tech professionals have been forced to cower to the Indu-Invaders in I.T. because if they stood up for themselves, they would be labeled racists. \u00a0And thus, like the Feds, they said nothing, even as they were training their slumdog replacements and packing their boxes\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A few days later, a gunman shot six people in Orlando, Florida. \u00a0According to CNN<\/a>, Jason Rodriguez had worked for a year at RS&H, a facilities and infrastructure consulting firm, as an entry-level engineer before he was put on several months of probation and fired for \u201cperformance issues\u201d. \u00a0Then he worked at Subway for two years before losing his sanity.\u00a0 Kim Berry, President of a group called the Programmer\u2019s Guild (which claims to represent the technical and professional workers of America, and which, according to Wikipedia<\/a>, had 400 members at what was presumably its peak in 1999), posted on a blog<\/a> suggesting that the murders might not have happened if RS&H (which has 800 employees) had not applied for six H-1B visa slots in 2007 and 11 in 2008.<\/p>\n Tunnel Rat piled on<\/a>: <\/p>\n \u201cIt is my belief that Rodriquez was pushed aside to make room for an H-1B\u2026\u00a0 I predict that this is just the beginning of a massive wave of violence as middle-aged American men reach their breaking point and start to settle scores.\u00a0 \u2026 H-1B program is now a national security issue.\u00a0 We can\u2019t have an invasion of curry-scented pod-people displacing millions of Americans\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n All of this is bizarre, despicable and disgusting, but other than the racial slurs, may not cross any lines. It is still free speech. Here is a posting<\/a> from Tunnel Rat that does cross the line:<\/p>\n Now that the slumdogs have taken over Google, I can no longer trust them to protect my anonymity\u2026 \u00a0That is why I am protecting myself and my family by stockpiling weapons and ammo\u2026 \u00a0My greatest hope is that some techie goes crazy and acts out violently against his slumdog replacement and the collaborators that hired the feral jackal. \u00a0That techie in Pittsburgh was way off the mark by going after women at a gym. \u00a0If he was going to kill himself anyway, he should of stopped off at the nearby law offices of Cohen & Grigsby.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [Cohen & Grigsby has been in the news for a talk one of its lawyers gave on how to work the H-1B system].<\/p>\n In another post<\/a> he responds to an Indian concerned about his racist remarks: \u201cYou should be concerned about THIS<\/a> [link to article about violent attacks against Indians in Australia].\u201d Tunnel Rat also gloated about having emailed the person \u201cpictures of dead Indians and other nasty things\u201d and said:<\/p>\n Here’s a deal, SLUMDOGS. \u00a0Get rid of Vineet Nayar, “the highly respected CEO of HCL Technologies<\/a>” and I will stop blogging. \u00a0Here’s a picture, so you can identify the FAT FUCK… \u00a0Go ahead, eliminate that fucker. \u00a0I promise I WILL STOP BLOGGING\u2026\u00a0 The ball is in your court.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I can cite many more<\/a> examples of threats of violence and \u201cretribution\u201d, but I am sure you get the idea.<\/p>\n One of the companies maligned, Apex Technology Group, filed suit against these sites. \u00a0In late December, a New Jersey court ruled in favor of Apex and ordered the sites to shut down, although allowing them enough time to file an appeal.<\/p>\n After the decision, the EFF put up a blog post<\/a> criticizing the takedown order and claiming that the “\u2026 order dangerously overreaches. \u00a0By restricting access to entire websites, it places a prior restraint on all of the speech on the websites, even if that speech is unrelated to Apex\u201d.\u00a0EFF argued that this would be like \u201ca court shutting Amazon.com or Yelp.com because of a disparaging review of a single product\u201d. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure whether this is a good analogy. \u00a0In my mind, those sites clearly cross the line from protected speech into terroristic threats or harassment. \u00a0A better analogy would be a Jihadi site posting hateful propaganda and calls to violence.\u00a0 These sites use the same techniques: posting misleading information and hateful rants and suggesting that readers do something to right the alleged wrongs.<\/p>\n So I e-mailed the author of the EFF blog post, Kurt Opsdahl, a senior staff attorney at EFF, to ask him what gives. \u00a0I asked what if the site EFF had been defending were attacking African-Americans or Jews: would EFF be taking the same stand? \u00a0What if the site had been advocating a holocaust or calling people \u201cniggers\u201d instead of \u201cslumdogs\u201d: would this cross the line? \u00a0I also told him that I had received death threats traced back to the domain names in question via email and in the reader feedback section of BusinessWeek in articles<\/a> I had written about immigration.<\/p>\n Kurt would not respond to the substance of what I asked. \u00a0The jist of his response: \u201cA court order should not shut down any website unless the entirety was not protected speech.\u00a0 While a \u2018true threat\u2019 is not protected speech, there are many views which are protected, even if repugnant\u201d.<\/p>\n What shocked me about Kurt’s response was this comment: \u201cI have not read the sites, since they were offline before this matter came to our attention\u201d. \u00a0I find this absolutely unbelievable.\u00a0Doesn\u2019t the EFF know how to search the Google cache? \u00a0Doesn’t it have a responsibility to ensure that it is using its power effectively and wisely?<\/p>\n What sort of \u201cpower\u201d does the EFF have exactly? \u00a0Right after its blog post, ComputerWorld\u2019s Patrick Thibodeau wrote this article <\/a>condemning the judge\u2019s decision, which, like the EFF statement, didn\u2019t even mention the nature of the speech on the site ordered to be shut down. (Patrick has been a vocal opponent of H-1B visas, something else he does not disclose in his coverage). \u00a0Likewise, the\u00a0San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> and The Oakland Journal<\/a> posted articles holding up the EFF blog post as a shining beacon of justice. \u00a0The favorable media coverage became a\u00a0major victory not only for opponents of H-1B visas but also for the general white supremacist, neo-Nazi, “kill all dark foreigners” crowd. \u00a0Nice company, EFF. \u00a0I’m sure you’ll get invited to the David Duke annual Christmas party soon.<\/p>\n You can debate the merits of the EFF stance from a legal standpoint. \u00a0But the EFF cannot function in a contextual vacuum. \u00a0I am certain its employees feel overworked and underpaid like those of many other non-profits. \u00a0But, by siding unwaveringly with some of the most hateful sites on the Internet and not even mentioning the nature of those sites, the EFF betrayed its charter of upholding justice. \u00a0A simple Google cache search would have easily shown Kurt and his colleagues that the sites in question were vitriolic. \u00a0By giving Tunnel Rat a free pass, the EFF encouraged several major media outlets to echo its one-sided defense of the ability to talk about killing and hurting Indians and H-1B holders. \u00a0If people want to have a debate about whether H-1B visas are good for America, let’s have it. \u00a0But if the most spirited response they can muster is to threaten the lives of their opponents, they’ve already lost the debate.<\/p>\n The only silver lining on this dark cloud is that it has brought this sort of xenophobia and racism out in the open. The anti-immigrant groups have claimed to be fighting a righteous battle for American workers. \u00a0Now it is clear what lies beneath the surface. \u00a0They can only fight with hate because logic escapes them.<\/p>\n Crunch Network<\/em><\/strong>: CrunchBase<\/a> <\/em>the free database of technology companies, people, and investors<\/p>\n\n
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